Booker T. Washington, Builder of a Civilization

by Emmett J. Scott; Lyman Beecher Stowe

In the article in the Century Magazine from which quotations have already been made Mr. Washington cites this statement made by W.N. Sheats, former Superintendent of Education for the State of Florida, in explanation of an analysis of the sources of the school fund of the State: "A glance at the foregoing statistics indicates that the section of the State designated as 'Middle Florida' is considerably behind all the rest in all stages of educational progress. The usual plea is that this is due to the intolerable burden of Negro education, and a general discouragement and inactivity is ascribed to this cause. The following figures are given to show that the education of the Negroes of Middle Florida does not cost the white people of that section one cent. Without discussing the American principle that it is the duty of all property to educate every citizen as a means of protection to the State, and with no reference to what taxes that citizen may pay, it is the purpose of this paragraph to show that the backwardness of education of the white people is in no degree due to the presence of the Negro, but that the presence of the Negro has been actually contributing to the sustenance of the white schools."

Mr. Sheats then shows that the cost of the Negro schools was $19,467, while the Negroes contributed to the school fund in direct taxes, together with their proper proportion of the indirect taxes, $23,984. He concludes: "If this is a fair calculation the schools for the Negroes are not only no burden on the white citizens, but $4,525 for Negro schools contributed from other sources was in some way diverted to the white schools."

Mr. Charles L. Coon, Superintendent of Schools at Wilson, N.C., is quoted as demonstrating that had there been expended upon the Negro schools the Negro's proportionate share of the receipts from indirect taxes, as well as the direct taxes paid by them, $18,077 more in a given year would have been expended on colored schools in Virginia, $26,539 more in North Carolina, and $141,682 more in Georgia. These figures would seem to show that in these States at least the Negro schools are not only no burden upon the white taxpayers but that the colored people do not get back in school facilities the equivalent of all they themselves contribute in taxes.

In the matter of passenger transportation facilities Booker Washington protested that injustice is done his people by most of the railroads of the South, not in providing separate accommodations for blacks and whites, but in furnishing the Negroes with inferior accommodations while charging them the same rates. This injustice causes, he believes, more resentment and bitterness among his people than all the other injustices to which they are subjected combined. The Negro or "Jim Crow" compartment is usually half of the baggage car which is usually inadequate for the traffic, badly lighted, badly ventilated, and dirty. The newsdealer of the train uses this coach and increases the congestion by spreading his wares over several seats. White men frequently enter this compartment to buy papers and almost always smoke in it, thus requiring the colored women to ride in what is virtually a smoker. Aside from these matters the Negroes rarely have through cars and no sleeping, parlor, or buffet cars, and frequently no means of securing food on long journeys since many if not most of the station restaurants refuse to serve them.

In the Century article Mr. Washington thus quoted the experience of a sensible and conservative Negro friend of his from Austin, Texas—a man of education and good reputation among both races in his native city: "At one time," he said, in describing some of his travelling experiences, "I got off at a station almost starved. I begged the keeper of the restaurant to sell me a lunch in a paper and hand it out of the window. He refused, and I had to travel a hundred miles farther before I could get a sandwich. At another time I went to a station to purchase my ticket. I was there thirty minutes before the ticket office was opened. When it did finally open I at once appeared at the window. While the ticket agent served the white people at one window, I remained waiting at the other until the train pulled out. I was compelled to jump aboard the train without my ticket and wire back to get my trunk expressed. Considering the temper of the people, the separate coach law may be the wisest plan for the South, but the statement that the two races have equal accommodations is all bosh. I pay the same money, but I cannot have a chair or a lavatory, and rarely a through car. I must crawl out at all times of night, and in all kinds of weather, in order to catch another dirty 'Jim Crow' coach to make my connections. I do not ask to ride with white people. I do ask for equal accommodations for the same money."

Booker Washington was of course obliged to travel in the South almost constantly and to a great extent at night. He nearly always travelled on a Pullman car, and so when not an interstate passenger usually "violated" the law of whatever State he happened to be passing through. The conductors, brakemen, and other trainmen, as a rule, treated him with great respect and consideration and oftentimes offered him a compartment in place of the berth which he had purchased.

Pullman cars in the South are not as a rule open to members of the Negro race. It is only under more or less unusual conditions that a black man is able to secure Pullman accommodations. Dr. Washington, however, was generally treated with marked consideration whenever he applied for Pullman car reservations. He was sometimes criticised, not only by members of his own race, but by the unthinking of the white race who accused him of thus seeking "social equality" with the white passengers.

The work he was compelled to do, however, in constantly travelling from place to place, and dictating letters while travelling, made it necessary that he conserve his strength as much as possible. He never believed that he was defying Southern traditions in seeking the comfort essential to his work.

Upon one occasion Dr. Washington went to Houston, Texas, and was invited by the Secretary of the Cotton Exchange, in the name of the Exchange, to speak to the members of the leading business organizations of Houston, upon the floor of the Cotton Exchange Bank. He was introduced by the secretary, who desired to give Dr. Washington the opportunity to put before representative Southern white men the thoughts and ideas of a representative colored man as to how the two races might live together in the South on terms of mutual helpfulness. Such was the impression he made upon the whites that when Dr. Washington's secretary applied for Pullman accommodations for him, returning East, they were not only ungrudgingly but even eagerly granted. In those days it was unheard of for a colored man to travel as a passenger in a Pullman car in Texas.

The injustices mentioned and all others connected with railway passenger service for Negroes Booker Washington sought in characteristic fashion to mitigate by instituting, through the agency of the National Negro Business League, what are known as Railroad Days. On these days each year colored patrons of railroads lay before the responsible officials the respects in which they believe they are unfairly treated and request certain definite changes. Although started only a few years ago these Railroad Days have already accomplished a number of the improvements desired in various localities.